I should have a review of.......something sometime in the near future. After I take a long nap.

Thanks for the sticky mod!It was, but it was the first edition, along with the TZH Movie Reviews.Unfortunately, that one is outside my jurisdiction and I know little about movies. Also, I don't think I should be the one to create that one; the honor should go to another.

It was, but it was the first edition, along with the TZH Movie Reviews.Unfortunately, that one is outside my jurisdiction and I know little about movies. Also, I don't think I should be the one to create that one; the honor should go to another.

I haven't been to the movies in a while, or I would do it since I did the last thread. Also, Hailfax has been extremely lazy.

Logged

It's been a hard day's nightAge is no guarantee of efficiency 3DS friend code: 4613-6707-8466

Story:Human: You assume the role as the Rookie for the Colonial Marines, you're going in for a combat drop when a Predator ship comes out of nowhere and attacks the ship you just lifted off from known as the USS Marlow. Major Van Zandt directs your ship to land when your ship is hit by shock wave given off from the explosion of the USS Marlow, and you are knocked out from the shock, only to regain consciousness on a medical bed, alone and in the dark, from there you take orders from Corporal Tequila, who directs you around the Human Colony as you try to find your surviving squad members.

Alien: You are Specimen 6, an Alien specially chosen by Mr. Weyland of Weyland-Yutani for special experiments. Later, you are undergoing an observation of your abilities by a scientist by the name of Dr. Groves, which at this time Mr. Weyland is opening the door to the ancient ruins of the Predators, and as it is opened the ruins emit a beam of light that disables all the local colonies systems, thus releasing Specimen 6, and all the other captive aliens from their restraints in the research facility from which you escape to terrorize the Colony.

Predator: You play as a Young Blood predator, and you start off going through your rites of passage to become one of the Elites. After completion of rites of passage, you receive word that a distress signal has come from a Young Blood on another planet. You go to the planet, destroy the USS Marlow in orbit above it, and make your way to the surface of the planet to find the missing Young Bloods, eliminating any Humans, or Aliens that get in your Path.

The Good:+ Three fun Campaigns, each offering different gameplay elements, with the Marine being your action packed FPS, Predator being more stealth oriented with some beat-em-up fighting as well, and then Alien which is the most stealthy where you have to crawl along walls, blow out lights, and put facehuggers on unarmed civilians.+ The graphics are pretty good, with some nice lighting effects, and lots of fine little details.+ In each campaign there are collectible items hidden in each level, giving you a reason to go back for more.+/- Really fun online, that has a game mode just like that of Infection in Halo, as well as another like Gears of War's Horde Mode, unfortunately the game matchmaking can be pretty damn slow sometimes, and in Social matches you have the option to browse through a server list, but you don't get that in Ranked.+ The Melee combat is pretty fun as well, you can block, and counter-attack enemies blows to knock them down and make your strike on them+ Awesomely gory finishing moves and stealth attacks as the predator and alien.+ Everything in the game sounds good too, whether it be the screech of an alien, the beep of your motion detector, or the roar of an alien who's just made a trophy kill.

The Bad:- The Sneak attacks can be pretty annoying, you don't have to be directly behind the enemy to do a sneak attack kill on them, you just sort of leap forward towards them and grab them, I've been in mid-jump as a predator, and have had an alien grab me.- No way to save your friend from a trophy/stealth kill, so if you see your buddy about to have his head ripped off by a predator, you can go ahead and shoot the predator, but even if he hasn't actually killed your friend yet, he will still die.- The ragdoll physics can be kinda weird, having little seizures and such.- The stories, as I described above, are all pretty lackluster - Voice acting is nothing memorable- All you unlock from ranking up in the online is new Skins for each of the three species, nothing really special.- I know that they're trying to set up a sort of freaky horror feel for the Marines, but it wouldn't kill them to make the flashlights beam of light a bit bigger, at least for multiplayer.- This one isn't really that big of a deal, because it's the same as it was in the other Aliens Vs Predator games, but each campaign is pretty short, with the Predator and Alien each having 5 levels, and Human having 6 levels, each campaign taking about 2 or 3 hours to beat.

Score: 8.0/10, the game is really fun, with some great online, however the bad stuff I mentioned does kind of bring it down a bit, but I expect that sometime in the future a patch will be released fixing mentioned bugs, but if your looking for a good action game, or just a fan of all things Aliens and Predator then I would recommend picking it up!

Story: Years ago before the Battle of Yavin, your father Kento Marek, was killed before your very eyes by Darth Vader. He sensed your force potential and took you in as his apprentice, giving you the codename Starkiller to replace your own name of Galen. Now his apprentice and years later (Close to the Battle of Yavin, but still a few years off) he sends you on your first task to test your abilities; to eliminate the ex-Jedi General, Rahm Kota. Going with you, is your pilot Juno Eclipse and PROXY (Holodroid) and the ship Rogue Shadow.

Time Spent: 9:48

The Good:+ One of the best Star Wars games to come out recently.+/- The story is good for what it is, but Star Wars fans will probably enjoy it more than the average gamer.+ The planets that the player will see, from Coruscant to Nar Shaddaa. It gives the game a nice variety.+ The force powers are quite satisfying. Throwing someone off a balcony or lighting someone up with some lightning are some guilty pleasures.+ Effects are good, and the force powers look great.+ Combos and chaining force powers and lightsaber moves together are immensely satisfying+ Sweet boss battles against other Jedi.+/- The finishers for the bosses are stunning, but use QTE as well. Totally worth it though.+/- QTE in boss battles can occur quite a bit.+ Music is stunning as usual.+ Sound effects are the usual Star Wars sound effects.+ Wookiees and Mandalorians!+ A whole 5 star meal of unlockables. Costumes, crystals that increase certain force powers, blade color... And collecting holocrons, which unlock some sweet character art.+ Multiplayer is a nice addition to it, but haven't tried it much.

The Bad:- Linear paths, Just one entry and exit for most areas and areas feel confined in most cases.- May get repetitive, slashing and using the same force powers over and over again.- Poor graphics for the Wii version, the characters in the cutscenes in particular.- If JK II: Jedi Outcast can have dismemberment's, then why not this one?- The average gamer can probably complete it in less time, making it seem even more shorter than it appears.- Sometimes in the QTE, the Wii remote/nunchuck might not register your commands, causing you to fail them.- Personally, I absolutely hate jetpack troopers with repeating blasters (They fire in bursts, but feel like repeater).

Score: 8/10, loved this game, even with it's flaws. Using the force powers makes you feel like a bad-ass but there could have been so much more to it. Making combos of the powers and lightsaber blows is still pretty sweet and it's definitely worth at least a rental. Essential to Star Wars fans, but that is a given.

Story: An alternative story taking place 5 years after the events of Call of Duty 4, Ruler Prince Farhad has left the country because of threats from Ultranationalists, and decides to purchase a nuclear device to use against them. Playing as Corporal Zach Parker for the USMC Warthog Squad, and Sergent Patrick O'Neill of the British SAS Gopher Squad, both of your Squads join forces and work together to locate the nuke, and prevent it's activation.

The Good:+ Some of the best graphics I've seen on a Nintendo DS FPS, there's lots of detail, full reload animations, gun shells flying out, and lots of other little nice effects, such as a Javelin missile flying out of the launcher, flying up into the sky, and slamming down on an enemy tank.+ Epic Gameplay. there's a fair bit of neat scripted events, like helicopters flying overhead, explosions going off, or the side of a building crumbling away after you've set some charges.+ Nice variety in weapons, including stuff not seen in Modern Warfare 2 such as an AN-94 Assault Rifle.+ Full Voice Acting, your not going to be reading any text boxes in this game, and the VO Work is pretty good too.+ Diverse Enemies. Enemies will run from cover to cover firing their weapon single handed at to lay down suppressive, they will throw back grenades you threw at them, they will pop in and out of cover, maybe pop off a few shots as they're dropping dead, or even go into a last stand position.+ Nice gameplay variety. There's a few little mini games, such as hacking computers, or aligning satellites. You can even take control of a Tank, and a UAV in a couple levels, there's also a couple riding shotgun moments, and you can even rain down fire from an AC-130+ Lots to do after you beat the game. Hidden in just about every level are little collectibles to grab, there's even some challenge levels where you have to beat a level under certain guidelines, if you beat the game on hard you unlock a mode where you fight waves of enemies and survive as long as possible, and the game even has it's own little achievements as well.+/- There's online, and if you can find a match it's pretty fun with unlockable weapons and other things, but like I said "if you can find a match".+ Easy controls that work really good.+ Pretty good music.

The Bad:- Campaign is a bit on the short side, it only took me I believe about 5 hours to do every mission.- The hard difficulty can be a bit of a pushover, some spots you have to be fast as hell to avoid gun turrets which absolutely destroy you.- While the Voice Overs are pretty good, they use a lot of the same actors for each character.- There's this one rare little glitch where when you aim down your sights, and then go back you still might appear to be zoomed in, but like I said, this glitch is pretty rare, and I'm pretty sure only happens if you do some certain things to cause it to happen.- Some sound effects we're recycled from the previous two Call of Duty DS games.- Not a whole lot of enemies on screen at a time.

Score: 8.5/10. The game is really fun, with lots of variety, as well as stuff to go back to after you've completed the game. It may not appeal to hardcore fans of Call of Duty who like mowing down hundreds of baddies at a time since this one is a lot more slow paced then its console counterparts, but if you're looking for a good FPS on the DS then I would recommend picking up (Or in my case downloading) Call of Duty Modern Warfare Mobilized.

Story: Vanessa Z. Schneider is hired by an unknown party, simply known as "The Client", to destroy a group of rogue CAMS (Computer Arms Management Systems) robots who slaughtered innocent colonists.

Time Spent: 3:24:48

The Good:+ Harkens back to the days of old-school with some fast-paced action.+ Energy drives, which act as special attacks, vary among the three main classes of suits (Offense, Defense and All-Around). Each type has it's uses and they look pretty cool when used.+/- Some are maybe too powerful, as they can bring the bosses down quite a few pegs.+ The suits are upgradable and not just for an appearance change.+ Some exhilarating boss battles...+/- ... That tend to repeat.+ Great sense of style.+/- The C-Stick is dedicated to camera changes, which does make it more stylish.+ Vanessa taps and moves to the beat of the music, which is a nice touch.+ Trial Missions is a nice addition to gain more points (For upgrades and buying assorted items).

The Bad:- Unbelievably short.- Story only picks up a bit near the end, but is unimpressive overall. But then again, there isn't much story to begin with.- Gameplay may get tiresome, just rapidly tapping the A Button and executing energy drives.- Not being able to dodge and shoot at the same time, or simply move and shoot.- Controls take a while to get used to and could have been better.- Doing the button combination's for energy drives doesn't always work.- Not much enemy and environment variety.

Score:6.5/10, out of the Capcom 5, this one was the weakest by far. It may not have been the best, or even close to it, but it was still a decent enough effort. What it lacks in story, setting and length, it partially makes up for in style and as flawed as the gameplay is, it feels that it provides something different. Chances are there isn't a place that will have this for rent, so it might be worth a cheap purchase for a couple of hours of action, but it depends on your taste in action games. Give this one some thought, as there might not be one quite like the same as this one.

Story: Based off the famous Russian novel of the same name, Metro 2033 takes place in Moscow, which has gone through the hell fires of a nuclear war, and everybody is forced underground into the Metro tunnels that run underneath it since Mutant creatures run rampant on the surface, and the atmosphere on the surface is so bad that you must wear a gas mask. You play as Artyom, a young man who lives in Exhibition, one of the many stations in the Metro, and has the misfortune of living in the station that's under constant attack by the Dark Ones, or Homo Novus, creatures believed to be the next step in human evolution, creatures that kill their enemies not with weapons or violence, but by getting into your mind, and destroying you mentally, which in turn kills your body. After your Step Father's friend, Hunter, visits you from another station, you receive word that the dark ones have gotten to another one of your stations guard posts, killing all the soldiers. So Hunter sets out to investigate the tunnels, and is never seen again. Later you, and some other soldiers decide to leave your station for the first time, and travel through the treacherous tunnels to get to the Polis station to warn them, and request aid against the Dark Ones.

Time Spent: 20 Hours so far.

The Good:+ The game features an awesome story, with some interesting characters. This game is a very story driven experience.+ Great graphics+ The atmosphere of the game is great, you'll travel through dark, creepy tunnels, or through the snow and ruins of Moscow+ Interesting in-game currency used to buy stuff. You'll use Military Grade 5.45mm Cartridges from before the bombs went off, the bullets are shiny, and can be used in your gun if you run out of your cheap home made ammo, the Military Grade ammo gives you a boost in fire power, where as your home made ammo is less powerful.+ Good Voice acting+/- There are some stealth elements to the game, and they usually work pretty good, but I've been in scenarios where I've killed somebody silently from the shadows, and then have everybody notice where I am despite having used a silent weapon, and being in pitch black darkness.+ Gun play is really fun+ Great Writing+ Quite a few different weapons, and you can buy better versions of each weapon with an upgrade such as a scope or silencer.+ Interesting enemies, you'll face giant mutated rat-like creatures called "Nosalises", large flying gargoyle like creatures known as "Demons" or "Bitches", Bandits, Red Army Communists and a new group of Russian Nazis, who are both at war with each other.+ You have a flash light, and later on Night Vision Goggles, and you can't just simply have them on all the time, you'll have to take out your Universal Charger and charge the battery, so as it runs low, your Night Vision might shut off, or your Flash Light will be dim, this just adds a nice level of realism to the game, where as in most games you have a flashlight that recharges automatically, or never dies.+ Using the gas mask isn't as simple as putting it on, you can monitor how much longer your air filter will last with an indicator on your watch, and when it depletes you'll have to twist on a new one, leaving yourself vulnerable for a moment, and your gas mask will crack, and break after awhile if your under constant attack from enemies, but it can be swapped for a new one, just something else to add to the realism of the game.+ Your objectives are written down on a note-pad, and you can use a lighter to see your written objectives, something that, once again, adds a level of realism to the game.

The Bad:- A bit short, I beat it in about 10 Hours.- Enemies can be dimwitted at times.- A few minor graphical glitches, enemies may pass through one another, or you and any of your comrades, and then during one level a portion of the sky-box had this green checker board thing going on.- Sometimes characters will say a word, or phrase in Russian, and sometimes it will translate what they're saying into English if you have subtitles on, but I would much prefer if it translated everything they say in Russian.- At one point you encounter an enemy (Well, more like an obstacle) called an Anomaly. What's annoying is that it's only seen twice, the two times you see it are in the level it was introduced, after that you never see it again, which is a shame, because it could have been an interesting obstacle to overcome and deal with later on.- Grenades don't really bounce at all.- Not a whole lot to do after you beat the game.

Score: 9.0/10. The game is really fun from start to finish with a great story to go with it, while the game has a few flaws, and there isn't much to do after you beat the game, it's still great to play through again just for the experience and the great atmosphere you explore through the game. If your a fan of story driven games such as Bioshock, or if your just looking for a fun game with a great story, I'd recommend giving this one a try!

Ok, I seriously didn't expect to love this title, I've wasted many hours playing tower defense games and the concept is pretty "bleh" by this point. But a couple week ago the demo for this new XBox Arcade game came out and I downloaded it because I am completely a demo whore. After a few plays of the demo I downloaded the full game and I have to say this is one of the XBox Live arcade games that's been well worth the money.

What I liked:

Fun concept. You play WWI through the filter of having a box of soldier toys. All the fun and carnage is there; from artillery to gas to mortars to machine guns and trenches. Good wholesome fun for the whole family. The "tower" you're defending is your toy box and you buy and place your units in standard tower defense fashion.

It's 3-D. The real twist comes into the fact that you can select any unit on the battlefield and control it. Kills you make with a controlled unit will give you various income bonuses so it's in your best interest to do so. And in fact player control is the only way to get the tank and airplane units on the playing field at all.

The dogfights are kickass fun.

The tank battles are also kickass fun (and the tanks have windup keys sticking out them.)

Lot's of missions for your money. The British campaign has 12 or 13 missions, once you beat it you unlock the german campaign which is 12 or 13 more missions. And the missions are nicely varied, some focus on air combat, some tank combat, some address everything and a few even have "boss battles" where you'll face oversized tanks, dirigibles and mobile rail cannons. I like variety and the steady progression of unlocking new units and changing up the encounters was very nice.

Multiplayer: Both online and split screen. It has a very nice mutliplayer mode. It features 5 maps but the real variety here is you can change up win conditions and even which units are playable during the battle. You control both your defense and your offense, selecting what your next wave of attack will be much like you select what unit you will place. An element of timing is important here because you launch waves of infantry for free every few minutes.

Replayability: In addition to the two campaigns (the Germans are reffered to as Campaign+ by the game.) you also have a nice set of achievements including two that unlock avatar clothes (I get excited about the free ones, I refuse to pay reall money for fake clothing). After beating each level you unlock elite mode for that level. Elite is not your standard tower defense. On casual, normal and even hardm all of your units, even ones you don't directly control, keep shooting and engaging enemies that enter their range. On elite the only way to engage the enemy is to do it yourself. It's very challenging but you get nice shiny medals unlocked for each level you beat on elite. You also get achievements for beating levels with a general rank (no units made it to your toy box) and for unlocking the ration tickets. What are ration tickets? Each mission (including the Campain+) will have a "bonus" objective which will unlock an item for your kit. From aspirin to toliet paper and everything in between, you get items unlocked complete with the WWI period slang term for it. Like bum fodder and char. (Toliet paper and tea respectively.) The bonus objectives are semi challenging and usually fun (snipe 3 soldiers with one bullet, blow up 25 or more soldiers or more with one explosion) I've been told that some of the ration ticket unlocks in Campaign+ are hellishly hard but I haven't gotten that far in yet. And oh yea, after you beat the British campaign you also unlock survival mode, which is retardedly difficult.

Graphics: The graphics are much better than I would have expected from a downloadable arcade game and the animations for the "toys" are great. They are stylisiticaly stiff and awkward at times and explode into bits of plastic instead of bloody chunks but overall it's very satisfying graphically.

Cool stat tracking: It's fun to see how well you performed post mission and with stats "highest flying soldier from shell blast" you can't go wrong. (I haven't broken 700 feet yet but it's been close...)

Things I didn't like:

The load times: The load screens are nicely detailed but da-YUM you spend a lot of time staring at them. For a game that's loaded onto the Hard Drive with no disc reading involved I can't fathom why the load times are so long for this. It boggles the mind.

The "picklehaub" avatar clothing unlock: Yea, I know I listed this in the things I liked but... I like the concept not the execution. Who is going to wear a helment that makes your avatar bald AND that you can't wear sunglasses with? I don't know how they fucked up a simple concept like an avatar helmet but they did. The gas mask is cool though.

The limited soundtrack: I put this one in here because every time you pause the game the music keeps going... and if you're out of the room doing something else and left the TV volume up it will drive you insane. Closely related is the fact that the main menu screen has a variety of about three or four songs but no matter long it is up it will only loop ONE. This will also drive you insane if left running for any length of time whilst you are otherwise occupied.

Overall: Overall I would say if you like RTS and/or tower defense you'll enjoy this one. I have mediocre fandom for either and I like it quite a bit. I've spent a good 12-15 hours playing it and still plan on going back to get the rest of my ration tickets just because I'm a completist like that. What else can I say, it's fun. Bottom line, this is the one of the very few arcade games I've honestly thought was priced fairly. It's fun and it has satisfying content and variety.

Story: You play as a secret agent known as "Scorpio" you are sent to the small tropical island of Panau to bring down Panay, the ruthless president of Panau.

Time Spent: 25 Hours so far.

The Good:+ A massive, beautifully detailed world to explore, offering different environments such as barren deserts, snow capped mountains, lush rain forests, and even some cities.+ Straight up, balls to the wall unrealistic action. You have a grapple hook you can use to scale mountains, and buildings, or pull an enemy off a building, pull an enemy towards you and unload a magazine into him, and you also have a parachute to make daring escapes from planes, and other vehicles. Also, causing Chaos earns you Chaos points, and when you get enough Chaos points you unlock the next story mission, more side missions, or more weapons and vehicles to be air lifted to you.+ Speaking of vehicles, there's a very nice variety to commandeer, from advanced military jets, to speed boats with machine guns, and tanks, to civilian vehicles like Tuk-Tuks, this game has a vehicle suited to your every need.+/- Destroyable environments. You can knock down trees, blow up guard towers, and there's lots of government property to destroy, like large radio towers, cranes, and gas containers. Unfortunately, all the government stuff you destroy doesn't respawn.+ Lots to do after beating the game. There's side missions, race challenges, hidden items throughout the world, and stuff to destroy.+ You can call in to have a vehicle, or weapon dropped, what's nice about this is that all weapons and vehicles that can be dropped off can be upgraded using vehicle and weapon parts, making your weapons hold more ammo, shoot more accurately, do more damage, or your vehicles take more damage, have better handling, or go faster.+/- Some of the side missions are insanely fun, being more fun than the main story missions, and then some or just lame, like taking out a few targets, or taking over a base.+ Cool music, it has sort of that spy action hero theme to it.+ Nice variety of weapons, you can get assault rifles, SMGs, Pistols, Rocket Launchers, and some other fun stuff. And single handed weapons can be dual wielded as well.+ Crazy stunts to pull off like jumping between the roofs of moving vehicles, and shooting it's occupants.+ Tons of locations to discover on Panau.

The Bad:- Bad voice acting. Some characters don't sound too bad, but some others sound terrible.- Some of the missions can get a bit repetitive. - Lame story.- Not the smartest AI around.- If you stick to only doing to main story, you can probably beat it in about 12 hours.- When you get a Heat Level (Heat is your wanted level) the enemy doesn't really seem that dedicated in catching you, only sending maybe a few guys with a helicopter, and they're not hard to shake either.

Score: 8.5. Just Cause 2 is a non-stop action packed thrill ride, and despite a lame story, and cheese ball voice acting, it keeps me going back for more destructive chaos!

Story: Nico Collard, French Photographic Journalist, scores an interview with Pierre Carchon; a national hero, media king and infamous adulterer. Soon after first meeting, he is shot dead in his home by a mime. She chooses to go after the mine and learns how Carchon and her father are connected and far more than she bargained for (Not going too much into that part, as it would spoil some new content). Fast forward to a cafe (And to the main game), where Nico was to meet a contact named Plantard who was to give information about the Templar's manuscript, and enter George Stobbart whom was sitting outside the cafe. Plantard entered the cafe with a brief case and soon a clown playing an accordion enters the cafe as well and leaves with the briefcase, soon followed after with an explosion from the cafe. Nico meets up with George in the aftermath and thus leads to a trip over Europe on a journey to discover the secret of the Templars.

Time Spent: 10:52

The Good:+ Hands down one of the best DS adventure games out there...+ ...as well as one of the best ports available.+ The story is downright amazing, and the dialogue/writing is top-notch. Humorous, engaging and will drag you in.+/- Nico storyline in the beginning adds depth to her character, but isn't sustained for more than the first hour or two.+ Is a true point-and-click adventure by having complete use of the touch-screen.+ Diary feature added that keeps track of the story.+ Hot spots are displayed by a small circle, so the player doesn't have to search for them (Adventure gamers know what a Godsend this may be).+ Doesn't try and use 3D polygonal graphics to a mediocre or lackluster effect but instead employs a great cartoon style for the characters and has some beautiful backgrounds.+/- Beautiful music, but there are quite a few areas where it's just silence and only the sound effects are there to keep you company.+ Excellent hint system.+/- Slider puzzle only occurs once and decoder puzzle twice.+ Apart from that, the puzzles are quite brilliant overall, and can usually be beaten by logic or by talking to the right characters.+ Some nice extras; Character art and a message from the director.

The Bad:- No voice overs. Given the DS's limited capacity, it's not really surprising, but is missed.- Kind of short, clocking in at 10-12 hours.- A few puzzles might leave the player stumped.- The top screen isn't used for anything, while the bottom is used for everything.

Score: 9/10, this... This, is what all adventure games (And ports) should strive for. This is right at the top of adventure gaming on the DS; an absolute essential. If you played the original Broken Sword, then you already have this; if you're an adventure gaming fan, you already have this; if you are a casual fan... Then you should play this immediately. It has a great story and writing, likable characters, beautiful settings, fun puzzles and all the stuff that makes an adventure game good.